Endangered Painted Dogs

The wild dog of Africa, African Painted Dogs, also known as Cape hunting dogs are highly endangered by any name, but the Monarto Zoo in South Australia has recently bred a litter of eleven pups who are all doing well.

Transcript

Robyn Williams: I'm at the Monarto Zoo in South Australia about an hour outside Adelaide and it's quite dark and I'm at a fence at a big compound with creatures...I can hear a lion way in the background, but there are three dogs with round ears, about the size of normal dogs, big normal dogs, looking at us through a fence. Mark, you're the Acting Director of Adelaide Zoo, what are they?

Mark Craig: Well, we have the African wild dog, or affectionately known as the Cape Hunting Dog, characterised by their large ears as you can see, rather sort of black muzzle face and this sort of patterned fur - and very alert. I mean, they obviously know we're here and they look as if they're ready to pounce, actually.

Robyn Williams: Let's get a bit closer. They are obviously very curious...now there're another two of them, that's five altogether - wow.

Mark Craig: Ah yeah, they are absolutely magnificent. You know it's a fairly typical sort of dog style, dog stance, but it's these ears and that erectness of the ears - and they're ready.

Robyn Williams: Except in one case, one's got a floppy ear.

Mark Craig: Yes, he's got a bit of a floppy ear, well you know, we're all individuals and obviously that's one. But what we're also looking at is probably Africa's most endangered carnivore now, which is obviously a sad state of affairs considering that maybe only ten or fifteen years ago you could probably go anywhere in any of the big game parks in South Africa and parts of Africa and see these every day that you'd go out on a safari, now seldom seen, and there're different factors for their decline but the fact is that they are in decline and were once very common. Now we have here at Monarto Zoological Park and indeed at Adelaide Zoo, breeding groups. Here at Monarto there's a group that just recently came in from a zoo in South Africa as part of a breeding program that's linked to a program that we have in Adelaide Zoo, and of course then we're linked to zoos throughout Australia. And actually we've just bred eleven pups at Adelaide Zoo.

Robyn Williams: Eleven pups, that's quite a lot - one mother?

Mark Craig: Indeed, one mother and that's very good. Now they do have big litters but this is very good that all eleven have survived up to - well, what are they now, they are about nine weeks old or so and very mobile, very active and indeed today the keepers gave them what we call a carcass feed, which is a carcass - as the name suggests - and of course they just go for it. They are wild animals and in the wild this is exactly what would happen: the mother would bring back food and actually regurgitate and the youngsters pile in and go for it.

Robyn Williams: Let me get a tiny bit closer, we're now about ten metres away, they're crouching, they're looking, they are looking a bit apprehensive bobbing up and down - Hi, how're you going - and there are about five, yes five, they're leaping about quite excited. They don't bark, do they?

Mark Craig: Not like the domestic dog but I mean, they will do their growls etc., but they are a very social animal. I mean, they are a very social animal but the special thing about this species is that the female is the dominant sex, which is unusual of course, because it's normally the male. But the female is the dominant sex and she decides really the politics of the social grouping. But they are great, they're very inquisitive, they're looking at us and in fact they look as if they've just been dipped in, I don't know, paint or something.

Robyn Williams: Is that why they're called Painted Dogs?

Mark Craig: Well exactly, exactly.

Robyn Williams: That's the nickname, is it?

Mark Craig: Yes, yes.

Robyn Williams: The African Painted dog.

Mark Craig: That's the name we've been using because I think that's the name that the public know more about and because it's also about getting the public to realise that this is a very special animal, endangered and it's not a scavenger, it's not an animal that you don't think much of, and so you're just trying to draw attention to it and I think Painted Dog is (more readily recognised).

Robyn Williams: Oh, they're going off now, they're going off.

Mark Craig: They're looking up and of course they've got a massive, massive great area here and this indeed is the only facility in Australia where you can actually drive through as you would on a safari in South Africa and well actually, in South Africa you wouldn't probably see them, here you can be guaranteed to see them and their behaviour, their social grouping is just like it is in the wild, it's really quite incredible.

Robyn Williams: And as you said, there are only 5000 roughly in the wild in Africa - why?

Mark Craig: Well, there're a few factors and diseases that have gone through and that disease has been introduced by man, they suffer from distemper. There are actually a lot of kills by lions as well and I'm not sort of saying that's contributed to their decline, and also the intrusion if you like of tourism. People go to Africa to see the wild animals and I think this species may be particularly sensitive to that. And they do have this fairly intricate social grouping and I think if you disturb that there're probably factors we don't even know about and that's the one thing about many species that were relatively common, we still don't know that much about them and what can trigger off a decline in their population or whatever.

Robyn Williams: Well, I suppose if your breeding really goes right and you get from eleven to hundreds, to thousands maybe, you can restock, if of course the environment is suitable to take them.

Mark Craig: Well, that's an idea that we hold, that we cherish, I mean, that is really the goal I think of a lot of our captive breeding programs. As difficult as that is, I think we still must hold that as a goal. And indeed yeah, the eleven that we've bred at Adelaide Zoo, as you said, they will be part of a program, if those animals - not those, but perhaps progeny of those we might be able to link up with similar programs in South Africa itself.

Robyn Williams: By the way Mark, was it difficult to get them to breed?

Mark Craig: Well, a lot easier than cheetah.

Robyn Williams: Yes, I can imagine, with the cheetahs we heard about the other week, but they're doing terribly well.

Mark Craig: Yeah, yeah, relatively easy but again it's about compatibility as well; you've got to get the groupings right and as I said the female is dominant and sometimes, you know, that takes a while to sort out. And also first time mothers, I mean the first time our dogs bred at Adelaide Zoo the mother mismothered and in fact destroyed and ate the young. But the second time, we have, well actually it was the third time, we have eleven pups and all survived and she's a fantastic mother, a fantastic mother and all are doing very well and the public come down and can just see the politics of African Painted dogs happening before their eyes, which is brilliant.